Sheila govt to respond to CAG indictment

Dikshit’s government highlighted the CAG’s acknowledgement of the fact that the signage project ahead of the CWG had improved the roads in Delhi. It sought to play down the reference the auditor made in its report about the avoidable expenditure incurred in the award of work for road signage ahead of the international sporting carnival in the city.

Delhi Chief Minister herself did not make any comment on the ruckus in Parliament over the CAG’s report on the CWG mess. But Arvinder Singh Lovely, Education Minister of Delhi, told media-persons on Monday that the auditor had not indicted the Chief Minister in its report.

“We are not rejecting the CAG report,” said Lovely, adding: “There is no indictment of the Chief Minister in the report. It has just raised some basic queries which will be under scrutiny by the Public Accounts Committee.”

Dikshit on Monday chaired a meeting of her cabinet in which the report of the CAG was discussed. Sources said that the Delhi Government had already prepared preliminary responses to some of the references made by the CAG.

“On whatever is happening in Parliament, I will not comment on that,” Delhi Chief Minister told reporters after the hour-long meeting. Asked about the BJP’s demands for her resignation, she said: “Let them demand.”

She also had a meeting with her close aides and top officials in the NCT Government earlier in the morning.

Lovely said that the CAG report had also acknowledged the improvement in Delhi’s infrastructure. He pointed out that the auditor on page 427 of the report noted the improvement in infrastructure through road signage process.

He said various government agencies like the Public Works Department, the Delhi Development Authority and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi were involved in the projects preceding the Commonwealth Games.